


rumor rumor rumor (say you love me)

by mekii



Category: BLACKPINK (Band), PRISTIN (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Fairy Kim Mingyu, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, M/M, Magic, Multi, Vampire Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi, they're so fucking stupid i love them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2020-07-09 17:35:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19891693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mekii/pseuds/mekii
Summary: When the superhero Minyua gets saved by his arch nemesis, everyone seems to believe they’re dating. The hero finds it ridiculous (hell, the villain broke his arm twice), but Hoshi offers to use it at their advantage. Villain or not, he did save his life and Minyua owes him one. It’s fine, it’s not like it’s a real relationship. At the end of the day (more like the end of the night), Minyua will go back to being the clumsy but kind Mingyu, who’s single and totally not dating a criminal.Until he forgets the one and only rule of war that matters: don't fall in love with the fucking enemy.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lightningbend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningbend/gifts).



> hi claudia!!
> 
> thank you for being such an amazing mingyu stan. a lot of carats only put mingyu in my tl when they can make a joke with something he did, but you never gave me that impression. it's obvious you love him lots and all the Mingyu Appreciation on my tl is more than welcomed ♡ i remember writing a birthday message and all but it's been like two months so i forgot and it's too late anyway, whoops. anyway i love you you're my favourite caratblink mutual and one of my favourite writers (which is why i made like four people read this chapter before posting it because wHEW i admire you a lot so it's kinda stressful to make one of my fav writers read one of my works) always be happy!! thanks for giving mingyu the love and support he deserves ♡
> 
> to claudia and non-claudias: this story has 27 parts (PARTS not CHAPTERS okay one chapter has multiple parts) and this chapter has 4 of them. the next chapter will probably have 4 or 5 parts and 2 of them are already finished so you should get it soon!

There's a lot of different ways to describe Kim Mingyu. If you ask Xu Minghao, he's clumsy and overdramatic. If you ask Boo Seungkwan, he's stupid and ugly and _why the fuck did he give me his jacket this idiot is gonna catch a cold again_. However, both boys talk about him with a fond smile on their face. After all, they're his best friends.

According to Jeon Wonwoo, he's a nice kid, smart and always ready to learn new things. He's easy to tutor, but maybe that's because they’ve known each other since forever, which makes Mingyu more willing to listen to him.

But everyone agrees that Mingyu is someone who believes in romantic, cheesy stories about soulmates. While his name won't show on his soulmate's arm (the universe has a weird sense of humour), he loves to draw on his arm when he's bored or when he feels like his soulmate had a bad day. They don't talk as often as they did when they were children, but Mingyu still knows a few things about him: his soulmate is a man, he likes to dance, he draws adorable tigers and hamsters, he's Korean too and he'd like to dye his hair red. Mingyu wonders how he'd look with red hair. Maybe he'll dye his hair red too after meeting his soulmate, it would be cute.

Minghao told him he probably wouldn't look as good as he did with his silver undercut, but red is Mingyu's favourite colour and he'd love to be matching with his soulmate. Minghao sighed, called him cheesy and bought him red hair dye a few days later.

God, Mingyu loves Minghao.

Even if he's currently forced to run away from him.

"KIM MINGYU!" Minghao yells as they run past Wonwoo, who’s talking to a teacher (like always).

"Hi hyung! Bye hyung!" Mingyu greets him, accelerating because even though Minghao's legs aren't as long as his, Minghao is gay and mad, which makes him twice as fast as Mingyu (bisexual and scared) could ever be.

"Try not to get killed today, your finals start in three days!" Wonwoo yells at him before going back to his conversation like nothing happened.

Of course, Mingyu gets caught. It's not because he manages to get home before Minghao can catch him (which wouldn't really save him since Minghao's his roommate) or because Minghao runs fast enough. No, he just trips over what seems to be his own foot and falls, face slamming against the hard ground.

"Ouch," he lets out while Minghao laughs at him.

"That's what you deserve for ruining my shirt with my favourite nail varnish... fuck, are you bleeding?"

"It was an accident," he mutters, pinching his nose, "I didn't mean to ruin it... I'll buy you another shirt. And another nail varnish bottle."

Minghao sighs and helps him get back on his feet. "Forget that, it's just a shirt and I was planning to buy another bottle soon anyway. Let's go home before you ruin another shirt."

"Are you saying you're more worried about my shirt than my nose?" Mingyu whines, clinging to Minghao and looking at him with his best puppy eyes.

"I hate when you do that," Minghao grumbles. "Of course I'm worried about you, stop being so dramatic."

“Aw. I love you too, Hao.”

On their way to their apartment, Minghao buys him ice cream and Mingyu almost feels guilty for (almost) breaking his nose, but it's not the first time it has happened and it surely won't be the last. Mingyu is clumsy, everyone knows that.

It's not a bad thing to have "clumsy" written on his forehead. If everyone knows him as the nice, but clumsy guy, they won't even imagine he could be Minyua, a superhero who fights crime when night falls.

But he _is_ Minyua, and being a superhero isn't as easy and fun as he thought it'd be.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he says through clenched teeth as he searches for his uniform.

It’s simple, something he’d probably wear in real life, but with a few fairy runes to make it look more serious. Villains are too busy dodging his spells and punches to make fun of his clothes and the media doesn’t seem to care much about him.

“Minghao! You stole my clothes?” Mingyu asks, hoping he didn’t. Minghao is only in Mingyu’s life, he doesn’t want him to be in Minyua’s.

“No? Did you lose something again?” Minghao’s voice is almost dripping with judgement.

“Hey! I have things to do, it’s not my fault I never have time to clean my room!”

He can hear Minghao’s snort, but he can’t really blame him for thinking he spends most of his time studying and sleeping. For anyone who doesn’t know about his secret identity (so, everyone), he probably seems lazy. It’s not really his fault: when you spend most of your nights fighting bad guys, you don’t get much sleep. As a result, he’s almost always tired.

“Hao,” he whines. “I need those clothes. I probably left them at Seungkwan’s, can you go check for me, please?”

“No, what the fuck? I just got home!”

Yes, and Mingyu feels like the shittiest friend ever for not going himself, but it’s not like he really thinks his superhero stuff is at Seungkwan’s apartment, he just needs Minghao to leave so he can use a spell to find his clothes.

So, he begs, with his best puppy eyes and a sad pout. “I’m really sorry Hao, I’ll do the dishes for a month. I’ll make you everything you want, you get to choose what we eat for a week… no, two. Please, Hao, I’ll do anything.”

Minghao looks at him, stares at the wall, sighs and gets up. “Fuck you. Give me the keys.”

“They’re already in your pocket. I’m really sorry.”

The other boy shrugs. “Well, if it’s that important to you… but don’t forget our deal.”

“Pinky promise!”

Mingyu has no idea if it’s due to him being a fairy or if it’s just him, but he never breaks pinky promises. Never broke one before, never thought about it, and certainly doesn’t consider it. Anyway, with how Lady Luck makes fun of him, pinky promises are probably kind of magic to him too, so he doesn’t really want to see what happens if he breaks one.

“I love you.”

Minghao points his arm. “Keep that for him.”

The door is almost closed when he yells that he loves him too. Mingyu waits, just to make sure he’s gone, then dips his fingers in the sink. The water is dirty, but it’s water, and it always gives him the little boost he needs to make his spells almost perfect.

When Minghao comes back, Minyua’s clothes are hidden under a spell that makes them look like old pajamas. It’s perfect and Minghao doesn’t question him when he puts them on and leaves, saying something about spending the night at Eunwoo’s to study.

As soon as he’s out of sight, he enters a building and starts climbing up the stairs leading to the roof. With a snap of his fingers, the illusion is gone. The three Tumblr users who know him – not that he checked – make fun of his costume, but he made it based on how practical it should be, not on aesthetic. Okay, sure, he walks around in a crop top showing his back to everyone, but that’s because he has _wings_ so he obviously can’t have to tear his outfit when he needs to fly. Hey, at least he has long sleeves! The red is practical too. One of the perks of being invisible to the public is that villains don’t know what he can do and assume his power has something to do with fire. The element of surprise is always an advantage and, as much as he’d like for the world to at least acknowledge what he does for civilians, he can’t deny he would probably lose fights more often if he was more well-known.

The door to the roof is locked, but that’s not a problem. Mingyu draws a rune on it and pushes.

“ _Et voilà_ ,” he whispers to himself with a grin, searching in his pockets.

Like any other superhero, he has a mask. Well, two, actually: the typical domino mask (red, because it fits the aesthetic) and a basic black dust mask, one almost everyone in Korea has. And his crop top’s hood, just to make sure (though it often falls when he fights or flies) the chances of someone recognizing him are as low as possible. Really, he’s doing his best, it’s not his fault he looks good. He conjures a mirror, adjusts his red domino and boom, Kim Mingyu is gone.

Minyua touches his nose. It's not bleeding anymore, but he can't show any signs of weakness. Also, losing blood isn't something you want to happen in a fight, especially when your enemies could use it to find your secret identity. He doesn't think he has enemies rich enough to have the equipment to do that, but he's pretty sure a vampire or two got in trouble because of him. It's hard to tell, he fought so many magical beings, he can't remember all of them.

However, he'll never forget a certain vampire. Batman has the Joker, Superman has Lex Luthor, Minyua has Hoshi. For some reason, “his" villain can turn into a tiger instead of a bat, which is more troublesome than you'd expect it to be. Minyua finds it pretty ironic how his villain can turn into a feline that doesn't dislike the water. It would have been nice to get rid of him with a simple, minor spell, but the universe seems to love making his life more complicated than it should be.

Whatever. He'll think about how unfair the universe can be later, he has a job to do. Whispering a spell he mastered years ago, he snaps his fingers and closes his eyes. The first raindrops on his face make him smile. Water fairies can cast spells related to water like they breathe, after all. It's not a well-known fact though, not with how humans killed hundreds of his people for their wings and blood or just because they're different.

(On bad days, Mingyu understands why Hoshi hates humans so much.)

Then he feels it. He doesn't make rain fall just for fun. This spell not only makes rain fall, but it also gives him some kind of sixth sense. If he's concentrated enough, he can hear conversations, see what's going on under the rain. He could also let it influence his touch, but he learned not to do that after someone stepping on water made him feel like a building fell on him.

There's trouble, people robbing a bank. Two individuals. Hoshi and Stray, who never talks, which makes him less annoying than Hoshi. Minyua groans, but still runs to them. As much as he hates dealing with them when they're together and he's on his own, he can't just stand there and let them get away.

His wings are aching to fly after a long day of pretending to be human, so he lets them out. He never keeps them in fights - too fragile - but flying is always faster than walking. If he’s not fast enough, another hero will get to the villains before him. It wouldn’t be a bad thing, not really, but Hoshi made fun of him too many times for him to not take it personal.

The water showed him a building, probably apartments. Nothing special, it’s the kind of building Minyua sees everywhere in the city.

“What the fuck are they doing,” he mutters, expecting an answer he never gets.

Right. He’s alone, on his own. It’s hard to get used to it.

Minyua would have loved to make a grand entrance by kicking the door, but it seems like Stray’s spells or Hoshi’s claws already took care of it. He’ll have to save it for his next fight.

“Really, guys? It’s Saturday night, I have other things to do!”

Before they can react, he throws a piece of the broken door at Hoshi and fills Stray’s mouth with water, a spell that isn’t really dangerous, but can be oh so helpful when it comes to stopping a witch from casting spells. Not all witches need a voice though, and it would be nice if Minyua could remember it.

“Always the same trick,” Hoshi sighs, “yet you never learn. Unlike you, Stray is strong enough to cast spells without his voice.”

And, okay, Minyua has to arrest them and he should try to do it as fast as possible, but the guy just hurt his pride.

“It’s a habit! And it’s not about strength, it’s about experience. Not that you’d know about that since the only magical thing you can do is turning into an oversized cat.”

Hoshi shrugs. “Whatever you say, pixie boy. I don’t need to know a lot about magic to be able to understand how strong Stray is, especially compared to you.”

Minyua only notices the purple light around Stray’s hands thanks to its reflection in Hoshi’s eyes (amber, feline and really cool, he’d like them if Hoshi wasn’t so annoying) and has to throw himself to the ground to dodge whatever spell the witch threw at him. The few seconds it takes him to get back on his feet are enough for Hoshi, but he doesn’t run away.

“You could at least pretend to escape.”

“Where’s the fun in that? I love a good chase.”

Hoshi leaves by the window and starts climbing. Oh, he’s not even trying to be subtle. No one tries to run away from a fairy by going where it’ll be easier for them to fly.

“Try to catch me, pixie boy!”

Minyua should focus on Stray and forget about Hoshi. After all, the witch seems to be the responsible one of their team, he probably has what they stole.

Whatever. He’s not paid for being a superhero, he can go after the villain he wants. The few people who know him will hate him anyway, it won’t make it worse. With that in mind, he carefully jumps by the window – and that means he jumps while taking care not to touch the broken glass. There isn’t really a careful way of jumping by a window if you don’t have wings.

“My name is Minyua!”

“With an outfit like that, you should go by h2hoe.”

That’s not as offensive as Hoshi probably thought it is and Minyua would probably find it funny if he had his two feet on solid ground and was expecting that comment. The problem is, he only has one foot on the roof and he isn’t expecting that comment, not at all. In his surprise, his wings disappear in a burst of magic that makes his left glove turn into a scarf – oh, not _again_ – and he almost falls to his death.

Almost, because purple light brings him back on the roof, in the middle of it. Stray is looking at him (well, Minyua can only guess he is, because the black mask he wears hides his eyes), a hand reaching for him. Telekinesis isn’t an easy magic to control unless you’re born with it, but it’s not as surprising as Stray trying to save his life.

“You know I can fly, right,” is what Minyua’s mouth decides to say.

Hoshi seems as surprised as him. “Why did you do that? You should have let him fall.”

Stray frowns. Minyua’s reaction is a bit more intense, but hey, he almost died, his second worst enemy saved his life and his worst enemy, period, is talking about killing him. For some reason, it hurts, even if Minyua should expect such behaviour from the vampire.

“ _Sanction_ ,” he growls through his gritted teeth.

Hoshi yelps and falls to his knees, spitting boiling saliva. As the assigned cook of the apartment, Mingyu mastered the art of making water boil long ago, enough for the spell to be so powerful Stray himself will have trouble stopping it.

Oh, he has no intention of seriously harming Hoshi so he’ll stop it after a few seconds, but that idiot needs to learn to shut his stupid mouth.

“You can consider yourself lucky I didn’t choose to make something else boil.”

Hoshi’s eyes widen. “You can make _sperm_ boil?”

Minyua chokes and loses all credibility he had. “Oh my god– I’m– No, I was talking about your _blood_!”

Stray does something with his hands – is that sign language? That’s amazing – and Hoshi laughs. “Even Stray is curious now! Can you?”

“I never tried to make sperm boil _what the fuck_ – can we just go back to fighting?” Bruises and broken arms are nothing compared to whatever this torture is.

Stray adds something.

“Please, five more minutes! Come on!”

The witch shakes his head. It’s weird to see them have a conversation when one of them is mute and Minyua can only assume Stray said something about leaving.

He’s proven right when Stray snaps his fingers, revealing a circle of Witch Runes under him. Behind the mask, Minyua’s eyes widen in realization. A portal.

Taking advantage of his surprise, Hoshi punches him in the face and uses his vampire speed to run to Stray. Minyua takes a step back, hand on his eye, before throwing himself at the villains. The hand not covering his eye reaches for Hoshi and he can feel the other’s cold skin under his fingertips, but he’s too late and they disappear in a flash of purple light.

Fuck. They slipped through his fingers, again. With a sigh, he drops to his knees. His eye is definitely going to bruise.

Hoshi didn’t kill him, but Minghao most definitely will.

“What the fuck.”

Mingyu doesn’t need to ask Minghao what nearly made him spill his coffee. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Mingyu, that’s not one of your usual ‘I forgot how tall I am and got a cupboard door in the eye’ bruises, that came from someone,” Minghao points out. “Who did this?”

Mingyu would like to talk about something else before his friend learns enough to realize he’s Minyua, but Minghao won’t drop the subject. To be honest, a bitching session about Hoshi sounds great and Mingyu has to admit it’s nice to be reminded that Minghao cares about him.

“I don’t know his name,” which isn’t really a lie, “but he was with a friend. I caught them in the middle of something I’m pretty sure people can get arrested for and I tried to stop them – not by force!” he quickly adds when Minghao opens his mouth. “Well, not at first! I tried to talk, but then they attacked me, so…”

“You stupid, kind dumbass.”

“You can’t say stupid _and_ dumbass–”

“Shut up,” Minghao groans before hugging him, so tightly Mingyu’s almost certain it could kill him if it lasted for long enough (but Minghao’s hugs feel so nice he’d gladly die in his arms). “I’m glad you’re okay. Where did it happen? You saw their faces?”

Fuck. The last thing he needs is a blood-thirsty Minghao.

“I don’t know. One of them hit me really hard, it’s hard to remember what happened last night.”

Minghao lets out a bunch of Chinese and English curses and takes his phone. “That’s it, I’m calling Seungkwan. These assholes can’t get away with giving you a possible concussion.”

Imagining Hoshi and witch boy against an angry Seungkwan is funny (they wouldn’t last two minutes), but Mingyu still stops his friend. It’s fine, he can take care of it himself. After all his fights against Hoshi and his comment about his costume, it’s personal. He’ll put him in jail himself.

Minghao doesn’t look convinced when Mingyu tells him it’s not necessary to plan a murder on this beautiful Saturday morning, but he drops it… for now.

“Next time you want cookies at shit o’clock, make them yourself or wake me up so I can come with you. I promise I won’t get mad at you, okay? The streets aren’t safe at night.”

Yeah, cookies. As stupid as his excuse sounds, it definitely isn’t the dumbest, weirdest thing he ever did, so Minghao still accepted it.

“I need another coffee,” Minghao announces as he gets up. “No way I’m finishing this essay if I’m not high on sugar or caffeine.”

“Buy me a muffin.”

“Come and buy it yourself.”

The new employee is really cute, so Mingyu doubts Minghao’s essay is the only reason behind his need for caffeine. When Jun – that’s what his badge says – starts panicking after asking them to repeat their order for the fourth time, Minghao switches to Mandarin. Mingyu isn’t fluent in Mandarin, but having Xu Minghao as his best friend means he knows enough to understand their conversation. It’s cute, the way Jun smiles with relief, the way their eyes shine as they talk about China – about home.

“Ah, we’re out of muffins,” Jun apologizes before taking a pen. “I think we have some in the oven, let me serve other customers and then I’ll check… if that’s okay with you?”

There’s only two people behind them and Mingyu knows how stressful it can be to work as a cashier in a café, so he reassures him with the bit of Chinese he knows. Minghao corrects him with a proud smile.

“Great, what’s your name?”

“Mingyu. And he’s Minghao,” he adds because he’s a good friend.

(And because he’s tired of Minghao sending him nudes when he’s drunk. Maybe having a cute Chinese boyfriend would stop him.)

Jun writes his name on his arm. Out of habit, Mingyu checks his, but sees nothing.

“Better chance next time, Gyu,” Minghao pauses to take a sip of his coffee. “But, with the hate universe seems to have for you, I doubt finding your soulmate will be so simple. Soulmates are overrated anyway, you really don’t need to find yours to have a nice life.”

Then, he chokes on his coffee. For a few seconds, Mingyu’s only reaction is to be satisfied for not being the clumsy one for once. That’s before he notices _it_. Once more, the universe is laughing at him.

“Well, I guess you don’t want me to tell Jun you just said you don’t need him to have a nice life,” he comments with a deadpan expression.

His brain is half amazed and half _why is the universe treating me as a joke_. Of course the boy who doesn’t care about soulmates finds his in front of him _and_ thanks to him.

He’s not upset about it though. Minghao is the best friend he could ever ask for and Mingyu’s glad he found his soulmate. He’s even happier he got to be there for one of the most important moment in one’s life. His name on Minghao’s wrist will be a good thing to mention at their wedding (that is, if they choose to have a romantic relationship and not a platonic one, but the way they looked at each other earlier makes him believe they’ll be those soulmates who make everyone envious).

Minghao walks back to the counter. “Hey,” he calls out, interrupting a blonde woman who looks like she’d yell at the referee because another soccer player touched her son Timmy. “We’re soulmates.”

Not the romantic announce Mingyu would have went for, but it’s simple and the happiness of meeting your soulmate is worth more than any confession. They’ll probably spend the rest of their lives together anyway, Jun has time to see how romantic Minghao can be (which is a _lot_ ).

“I’m sorry?” Blonde Soccer Mom says, sounding like she isn’t. “I was talking.”

“Shut up Susan.”

Being in Jun’s shoes, Mingyu would worry about his soulmate being rude to customers, but his smile doesn’t falter.

“Hi, I’m Junhui, he says and reaches for Minghao’s wrist.

Minghao meets him halfway, smiling as his soulmate caresses his wrist, fingers as soft as feathers like he fears touching it will make it disappear.

“Minghao,” and Junhui’s smile gets even bigger. “But you already knew that.”

The customers (except for Becky) start cheering. Mingyu doesn’t know anything about Junhui, but he looks kind and the universe had always seemed to like Minghao, it surely didn’t give him a bad person as a soulmate. He can’t wait to befriend him.

Mingyu is still searching for his soulmate, but Minghao found his and he’s happy for him. However, it seems like Minghao didn’t get the memo: as they walk home from the coffee a few hours later, the youngest keeps his eyes on the floor, refusing to look at Mingyu. It’s easy to guess why.

“Hao, you know I love you, right?” Minghao nods, but doesn’t say anything. “You know I want you to be happy, right?”

“Yeah. I don’t see what you’re talking about, though.”

“I’m happy for you, Hao. You should be happy too. I mean, come on, you just found your soulmate and he’s cute and handsome! Stop feeling guilty.”

Minghao sighs and finally looks at him. “Mingyu, I never cared much about soulmates, but you… I don’t think I deserve to have a soulmate with me when you’re still waiting for yours. It’s, it’s unfair.”

“That’s not how it works.” Mingyu wants to run home, because that’s not a conversation he wants to have on the street. He wants to talk to Minghao in the comfort of their room, or maybe on the couch, with popcorn, blanket and a shitty movie full of clichés.

His friend doesn’t reply. He’s not feeling any better, Mingyu can tell, and it becomes even more obvious when they finally arrive and Minghao brings him his favourite hoodie – the one he never lets him wear, which means a lot. Then, he leaves to make hot cocoa. It makes Mingyu frown. Really, he’s not heartbroken or anything, Minghao shouldn’t feel guilty. Hell, even the _thought_ of being jealous of his best friend is weird, he’s nothing but happy for Hao.

Meeting your soulmate is one of the major events in someone’s life and Minghao is a big part of Mingyu’s. He wants to share the news with his own soulmate.

He gets rid of his jeans, taking the shorts he wears as pajamas instead, and brings Minghao’s hoodie to his face. If his friend comes back while he’s casting a protection spell on it (those spells always work better on the person himself, but since he can’t do it on Minghao, he goes for the next option, the clothes he wears the most), he can always pretend he’s just smelling it because he likes the smell. It’s not a lie, he does like how it smells like home (like Hao). When he takes off his shirt to slide the hoodie over his head, the tissue is soft on his skin. Yep, definitely his favourite hoodie, maybe he could ask his friend to make him one as a birthday gift.

“I added some pastel marshmallows. The tiny ones. Fruits flavoured.”

Mingyu grabs Minghao’s arm when he tries to leave. “Stay.”

He hesitates. Mingyu doesn’t like how awkward he is.

“Mingyu…”

“Minghao…” Mingyu starts with a teasing smile, doing his best to act like Minghao’s behaviour isn’t hurting him. “I’m fine. You better send me an invitation to your wedding though.”

That finally makes Minghao crack a smile. “Of course I will, Gyu. You’re sure you don’t feel even a tiny bit upset?”

“Yeah, I’m sure, you can stop asking. It’s fate, I’ll find my soulmate when it’ll be time. I know I’ll find him.”

“Some people never…” Minghao doesn’t finish his sentence.

Mingyu rolls his eyes. “Being positive doesn’t hurt, and you’re really not helping. Are you trying to make me feel bad?”

“Right, sorry.”

Mingyu reaches for the red pen on the floor. They’re sitting on what he calls his “soulmate space”, aka a bunch of blankets and pillows on the floor – kind of like a nest, it must be the werewolf blood he got from his grandmother – with pens in and around it so he can talk to his soulmate when he feels like it. Minghao knows it, so he moves to get up and leave, but Mingyu stops him.

“No, stay. You can take one and talk to Junhui.”

Minghao stares at the blue pen like it’s about to eat him alive. “Don’t you want, uh, some privacy?”

Mingyu snuggles closer to Minghao, curled up against his side with his head on his shoulder. “No, you’re warm and comfortable. Stay.”

He doesn’t need to ask a third time. Minghao sighs, leans against him and uncaps the pen.

“Don’t let your hot cocoa get cold, I think I broke the microwave to make it.”

“Well fuck me.”

“No thanks,” and his best friend is back. “Don’t you have a soulmate to talk to?”

Mingyu rolls his eyes and playfully slaps Minghao’s back. It’s an uncomfortable position and he’s almost certain he hurt himself more than he hurt the other. Whatever.

“Shut up and go tell Junhui about how you love his eyes or some sappy shit like that.”

Mingyu smiles when he feels Minghao’s shoulder shaking. His giggles are adorable, he sounds… in love. That reminds him of something, or rather someone. He shouldn’t make his soulmate wait.

_Hi_ , he writes on his right arm.

His soulmate isn’t left-handed like him, so he looks at his left arm for his reply. Like always, he doesn’t wait for long.

_hi!!!_ His soulmate starts doodling something, probably a hamster. He always draws hamsters. _how was your day?_

_Nice. My best friend (Minghao) found his soulmate_

_yeah I remember minghao lol_ (he talks like he probably texts, and Mingyu is too whipped to find it anything but cute) _that’s cool  
i cant wait to meet you_

Minghao pats his cheek when Mingyu shows him the message.

_We’ll go on dates and you’ll hold my hand_ , he writes, ink as red as his face. _We’ll cuddle in pillow castles._

“You guys are adorable.”

_well have amazing sex too i bet youd look really hot und_

_My friend is reading, please don’t write anything you wouldn’t like your mother to read_

His soulmate draws a dick. Mingyu hopes he’s not using a Sharpie.

“I take it back,” Minghao grumbles, fishing a blanket in the nest. “I’m taking a nap, don’t wake me up if there’s a fire.”

“College?”

“College.” He can respect that.

Minghao quickly falls asleep. Mingyu moves to put his head on his friend’s chest and starts drawing what he supposes they look like while his soulmate writes about his day.

_are you ~~cudling~~ cuddling (sorry lol i went too fast)_

_Yep. With Minghao_

_i knew you were a little spoon_

_I’m 6 ft 2._

_little spoon little spoon little spoon little spoon_

Mingyu stops him before he wastes too much skin on his left arm (his handwriting is terrible, it’s impossible to read when he uses his left hand). _Yes, I’m a little spoon_

_im smaller than you :(  
please tell me youd still be my little spoon_

_I’ll gladly be your little spoon ♥_

The rise and fall of Minghao’s chest is incredibly relaxing and Mingyu finds himself fighting sleep. Between studies and his life as Minyua (he also needs to find a job, especially now that they have to buy a new microwave), he struggles to find time for sleep.

_Awn I’m tired :(_

_noooo and im not even there to cuddle you_

_My big spoon in shining armor!_

His soulmate draws a laughing hamster. If he doesn’t meet him soon, he’ll have to shave his arm so he can take a photo of one of his hamsters to make it his lockscreen.

They keep talking until Minghao’s stomach wakes him up. Mingyu’s left arm is almost full anyway. He’s okay with it: lots of pet names and promises – holding hands, cuddling on rainy Sundays, decorating a Christmas tree – are painting his arm blue.

_I’m hungry, whoopsie. Guess we’ll have to say goodbye_

_my pen is running out of ink anyway i have work to do :( sorry i dont think well talk again tonight_

_That’s fine. Good night ♥_

_sweet dreams_ _♡_

Mingyu’s soulmate is perfect. They have a lot in common, he’s funny, he likes to draw hamsters and he doesn’t get mad when Mingyu cuddles with his friends. He also doesn’t have anything against Mingyu doodling on his arm.

Really, he’s the perfect soulmate. For once, Mingyu feels like the Fate is nice to him.

But when dinner is over and he’s laying in his bed, he can see Minghao looking at his name on his wrist – Junhui has yet to wash it, which is cute – with an expression Mingyu has never seen on his face before. It makes him feel lonely. He’d rather spend the rest of his life under the impression of living on a deserted island than make his best friend worry, so he waits until Minghao is asleep to take his pen.

_I hope we’ll meet soon, before I lose hope_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you leave kudos and/or a comment i'll love you forever ♡ (no but seriously comments make me write more so if you want an update soon pleaaaaase leave feedback, even if it's negative!)
> 
> twitter: @mekimingyu  
> curiouscat: @mekimingyu


	2. Chapter 2

Minyua hisses and kicks Hoshi in the ribs. The vampire managed to dig his claws in his arm – his sleeve is ruined, what the _fuck_ – and was probably about to bite him.

“Stop playing around, I have things to do.” Stray watches them without moving. His voice is robotic, his real one obviously hidden by a spell.

“Then go and let me take care of our pixie boy.”

“He’s a kid,” Stray sighs, kneeling to pet a black cat. “Don’t kill him.”

“I don’t want to kill him, I’m just trying to hurt him enough for him to leave us _the fuck alone_.” The last words come out as a growl and Hoshi’s eyes turn red. Minyua blinks and the vampire has disappeared.

He’s not fast enough to get away before Hoshi shows him how many ‘how to sweep kick’ videos he watched on Facebook. To his surprise, a hand covers the back of his head when he falls, and it’s not Stray’s.

“You’re welcome.”

Minyua glares at Hoshi. “You’re the one who made me fall.”

“And I’m the one who made sure you didn’t crack open your head on the roof! It was my pleasure, you don’t have to thank me.”

Minyua chokes on the other’s audacity. “Of course I don’t! What the fuck are you even saying?”

“Stray, I made pixie boy say a bad word!”

“Amazing. Can we go home now?” Stray sounds bored, and Minyua can understand. It’s always the same: Minyua and Hoshi fight, mostly verbally, while Hoshi’s partner waits on the side. The first time it happened, Minyua was offended, but he quickly realized it was better for him to fight only one of the villains. With the way things ended last time, he doesn’t have anything against Stray minding his own business and leaving them alone.

“But I’m having fun!” Hoshi whines.

Minyua isn’t, so he’s more than happy when Stray rolls his eyes, takes his friend by the collar and almost throws him into a portal he just opened. Before the portal closes, he hears Stray talk about having to do something to “him in the morning, you asshole”. He has no idea what and who he’s talking about, but Hoshi got called an asshole and he’s petty enough to feel satisfied by that.

Wait. Fuck, tutoring. Mingyu is supposed to meet Wonwoo a few hours later to get help with his homework and he’s pretty sure he won’t be able to do it on his own, which means he can’t stay in bed and get the sleep he needs. Fuck, being a superhero _and_ a student is way too hard.

If he keeps thinking about it, he’ll just cry and waste time he could spend in his bed. So, with a sigh, Minyua stretches his wings and leaves the roof.

Mingyu sucks at maths, really. He used to be good, which makes it even more frustrating. He feels so, so stupid.

Luckily, there’s Jeon Wonwoo, his childhood friend and also the kind of person who does maths for fun. When he started tutoring him, Mingyu was only pretending to struggle so they could spend more time together. Two years later, he’s really failing his class and Wonwoo hasn’t stopped laughing since he found out about Mingyu’s strategy to get his attention.

“I’m not judging you, it’s cute,” he insists, but Mingyu never really believes him. It does seem a bit pathetic now that he thinks about it, but he was young and his friend was so deep in studies they barely even talked.

Now, Mingyu really fails maths and he’s with Wonwoo for at least two hours a week. As he watches his sheet full of red marks with tears in his eyes, he starts to wonder if it was worth it.

“Sorry, that wasn’t really… that,” Wonwoo tries, but there’s nothing he can say about the disaster Mingyu gave him.

“I have no idea what I did wrong,” Mingyu mumbles. “I don’t even understand what I did.”

Wonwoo looks at him and Mingyu hates how worried he looks. He knows he looks awful: his eyes are almost lost in his dark circles, Hoshi left bruises almost everywhere on his skin, stress and all the physical activity he does as Minyua are making him lose too much weight… 

Being a superhero and a student seems impossible, but it’s not like he can stop now. Minyua saw too much to go back to being a full civilian without feeling guilty. Big heroes like EXO and Twice are doing their best, but crime can’t be fully stopped and someone needs to handle the small ones, the ones people don’t talk about or only notice when it’s too late.

He lost count of how many attempts he made at solving his problems when his sleep-deprived brain starts seriously considering dropping school. He’d give up his dream of being an architect, his parents would kill him and Jennie would try to send him back, but maybe…

“No,” Wonwoo says when he tells him about his possible future. “You can do this. You’re just tired, you’d understand if you could concentrate for two seconds, which is impossible for now since you’re fighting sleep.”

“I feel stupid, hyung. I’m dumb and useless. I keep ruining everything, I can’t do anything without making a mess. Everyone is better than me in everything.”

Mingyu isn’t sure he’s still talking about maths, but it feels good to let it out. Maybe he should ask Minghao if he has time to do a sad movie night, his hugs are the best.

He can’t stop Hoshi, can’t even come close to win a fight against him. When they fight, the only reason why Minyua isn’t completely defeated is because Stray forces Hoshi to leave him alone. Even his enemies find him pitiful, it’s no wonder Hoshi isn’t intimidated. Well, no one is, and it makes sense if he thinks about it. The criminals he arrests go in jail and get out. He sucks at finding proofs some people are guilty and he has to live knowing they’re ruining people’s lives. He wishes he could be a bigger hero, no one doubts EXO when they say someone is guilty.

It seems pressuring though. What if they’re wrong? What if a villain pretends to be a hero so they can arrest innocent, good people? The more time Mingyu spends as Minyua, the harder it becomes to trust people he doesn’t know.

“Mingyu, you’re really out of it today. Do you want to rest? We could take a nap instead, you seem like you need it. Let’s work tomorrow.”

“Hyung, you work on Sundays.”

“No, I’ll ask a friend to take my shift. It’s fine, I can miss a day if it helps you. Really, Mingyu, they need me too much to fire me and it’s not my biggest shift, I don’t need that money as much as you need to have good grades.”

It’s dumb, but Mingyu is about to cry. Doing his best to distract himself (because Wonwoo is one of his favourite people ever, but it’d still be embarrassing to cry in public), he announces he’ll buy another coffee, gets up and bumps his hip against the table in his hurry to leave. To his luck, said hip was victim of Hoshi’s treatment and hasn’t healed yet so he needs a few seconds to blink away tears and bite his lip to keep a scream. Wonwoo watches him with a grimace and what seems to be guilt in his eyes, probably feeling responsible since he’s the reason why he’s almost running away.

“Sorry for that, it’s embarrassing…”

“We’re friends since you tried to eat my red crayon, Gyu, I’m used to it. It’s cute. And stop worrying about tomorrow, it’s no problem.”

Mingyu just _knows_ his ears are red. Wonwoo knows he gets flustered by the tiniest compliment, he’s probably doing it on purpose (and it’s working a bit too well).

"Thank you, hyung."

Wonwoo smiles.

“Really, Gyu, it’s the least I can do.”

For once, Mingyu thought he could stay in his room and study before getting eight hours of sleep. So, of course, Minyua is now running after a van. The rain sent him the cries of a young dragon and a familiar face. The cops don’t care about magical beings, they won’t do anything to stop magical children trafficking and the better, more popular heroes like Twice never go to this zone, too busy fighting super villains.

Really, Mingyu is the only one who can do something. He has to: he remembers fighting the guy and his minions a few days ago. He should have been better, he should have stopped him. It’s his fault and he has to fix it.

Since a giant like him isn’t really subtle, he shrinks to his “fairy size” (as Jennie calls it), now small enough to fit in Minghao’s palm – Minghao’s hands are softer than soft, perfect to hold – and wings a bit shinier. It’s annoying to make light when he wants to stay hidden, but not as bothersome as his normal height. He wishes he could be a witch like Stray: cool, powerful and definitely never compared to Tinkerbell.

The van leads him to a house, nothing like the dark warehouses he sees in movies (and sometimes in real life, though not that often). It looks warm, cute, normal. It makes him sick.

Mingyu flies around the house, searching for a way in and finding it as the window of what seems like a storage room upstairs. He checks if there’s someone in the room – nope, it’s empty – and dips his fingers in the bag of silver powder he keeps tied to his belt. He uses it to trace a circle on the glass, then draws symbols in it, muttering a spell as fast as he can. While water spells are easier, his favourite spells are the ones that require drawing.

After flying through the hole he just made in the glass, Mingyu goes back to his usual height and makes his wings disappear. It’s his first time dealing with something so big, so serious, and he’s alone. Amazing.

But he knew what he was getting in when he decided to be a superhero, that’s (kind of) his job. If he doesn’t do it now, he’ll have to face a similar situation later, it’s only a matter of time. Also, the poor dragon baby… he can’t leave, not without him and any other victim.

God, he hopes the dragon is the only one. He’s not good enough to protect a bunch of kids.

Mingyu takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. “Titania, please give me strength.”

Then, he opens the door. Thanks to his amazing, non-existent luck, there’s a man behind it.

“Fuck,” he sighs, already tired.

The guy is young, he lacks any experience. The boss probably recruited one of the usual “I hate everyone who isn’t human” people, gave him a gun and called it a day, because Mingyu has the time to punch him before he either calls for help or grab his gun. With the sound his nose makes, it’s probably broken and he almost feels guilty.

Almost, because, as young as he is, the bastard works with people who kidnaps children simply because they’re a bit special, like they’re not _people_ too. Fuck him and his nose.

Putting a hand on his mouth to silence him, Minyua pins him to the ground, softly enough to be quiet, but still hard enough for it to hurt. With a disgusted grimace, he slips a finger in the man’s mouth. Saliva is as easy to use as water, as disgusting as it feels. It makes casting spells on people ridiculously easy.

“ _Morphée te réclame_ ,” he whispers in his ear, grinning. “ _Répond à son appel._ ”

Is the French necessary? No, but it makes him look cool. Also, most people who don’t speak French assume he’s cursing them in an old fairy language, which is a bonus.

(No one ever taught him any fairy language, but Jennie taught him French. Maybe that’s why he likes using it so much, he’s sappy like that.)

He feels his magic work, helped by a contact with a liquid. As soon as the man closes his eyes, he takes his finger out and wipes it on the guy’s shirt.

Well, that was easy. Now that he knows he’s not dealing with pros (he’s more than happy with leaving the mafia to Monsta X while he saves kittens stuck in trees), he’s feeling a bit more confident. His hands are still shaking, but it’s a start.

That’s when he hears it. It, the sound of a slap, followed by a cry. _Fuck_ , they’re hurting the baby, and they’re laughing. Enough is enough, and he runs to the stairs, jumps down them and blinks in surprise when he finds himself in a room bigger than his whole apartment. It has to be enchanted, it didn’t look that spacious from the outside.

Magic is used, which means the guys are working with some kind of magical creatures. Maybe the dragon’s kidnapping wasn’t because of the magic in his blood.

The room is also full of bad guys, and all eyes are on him (more precisely, on his exposed skin, which makes his cheeks burn). His are on the kid, currently curled into a ball under someone’s foot. Said someone – probably the boss – is glaring at him. It’s not as effective as it could be, because while he’s easily scared, he loves kids more than he fears anything.

“Fuck off,” he growls before throwing a kick to the guy next to him – the angle is weird, it’s not as hard as he wishes, but he’s mad and his boots are enchanted – to knock him unconscious. Then, he makes the bathroom’s sink (upstairs, above them) explode and uses the distraction to take unconscious asshole’s gun and throws it at Probably Boss. Newbies, he guesses. It’s way too easy.

A part of the ceiling collapses and his grin freezes, Minyua realizing that his distraction might work a bit too much (hey, it’s not like there was a way to know making the sink explode would damage the floor, so the ceiling of the room Minyua is!). The kid is still trapped under the guy’s boot, he needs to get him out as soon as possible.

To busy fighting the minions, he can’t get to the kid, but casts a spell, protecting him with a bubble (enchanted, of course). Minyua slowly gets worried, his moves losing their strength as he tries not to panic. Even with his magic and the kidnappers’ lack of experience, he’s one tired college student against more than a dozen adults with guns who don’t have to worry about a child hostage.

_I have to end this as soon as possible to bring the kid back to his family and call an ambulance for the men trapped under the ceiling, fuck._

Screaming spells – Korean, English, French, he doesn’t care anymore, he just needs the job _done_ – that use a bit too much energy, he finally gets rid of them. Well, most of them, the boss and three other guys are still standing.

He spits blood, eyes glowing blue with fury. “Your turn.”

To his surprise, the boss laughs. “Oh no, I have other things to do, boy. You can keep the monster…”

He steps back, followed by his men, and watches as Minyua makes his biggest mistake of the night, throwing himself at the dragon kid without realizing how easy it suddenly is. The sight of the hero on his knees, checking for injuries, makes Boss laugh again.

It’s an ugly laugh and Minyua wants it _gone_. Then, he notices the smirk. He hates it even more.

And then, what the water tried to tell him finally gets to him.

“Bombs,” he whispers. The man doesn’t ask him how he knows it.

“Thirty seconds left, boy.” And the warning means he still has time to get out, to use magic, to _do something_ , but that’s when Minyua truly starts panicking.

His arms hurt and he doubts his legs can carry him (he doesn’t think about magic, not a single thought, because he’s stuck with an injured kid and _the kid is gonna die it’s his fault he just killed a kid_ ), but the kid can’t walk on his own. Fuck, they’re gonna die and that’s his fault.

He holds the boy in his arms, trying not to shake too much, and closes his eyes.

He hears wings flapping, so he opens them.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe now.” There’s an angel, dressed in black leather, in front of him. “Thank you for protecting Dino.”

“I’m, hyung, you, I didn’t need it,” the kid stutters, finally talking. He sounds like his throat hurts and Minyua winces in sympathy.

However, despite claiming he’s okay, his hands are shaking and refuse to let go of Minyua. The angel smiles (it’s soft, comforting), a smile that fades when he notices their injuries.

“Shit,” and Minyua can only stare in shock because _holy shit angels can swear?_ “I’m sorry you’re hurt. We… had trouble finding Dino.”

Dino wiggles in Minyua’s arms, turning around while still refusing to leave his embrace. “Shua hyung, they are after Hannie hyung!”

“Were,” a voice corrects him. The smell of blood fills the hero’s nose, but the voice alone is enough to scare him. As beautiful as it sounds, he knows it, and the man it belongs to doesn’t have a good reputation.

The only reason why he looks up is to avoid looking at the bleeding corpse – he’ll never hear that terrible laugh again – dumped on the floor in front of him. As soon as his eyes meet Scary Voice’s, he lets out an embarrassing, humiliating squeak.

The voice is scary and the man it belongs to is terrifying.

Han and Jisoo.

“You’re the Fallen Angels,” he whispers, horrified. “Please don’t kill me.”

Han – Hannie – waves a hand, blood dripping from his fingers. “You saved my baby – stop whining, Dino, everyone and their mother know you’re a baby – and I owe you one for that. Without you, he’d probably have more than bruises.”

“Assholes,” Jisoo snarls, crossing his arms. “What kind of monster takes pleasure in harming a child?”

“Humans,” Han chuckles though his eyes are dark. “And dumb ones.”

Everyone knows it, you don’t touch what’s Han’s. The villain became famous after making someone choke on their own gun after they shot his partner and he did it in broad daylight. The message was clear.

Jisoo is as protective and vengeful as Han, but his vengeance is never as bloody, not directly. No, he knows how to hurt someone without touching them. Minyua wonders how his wings are still white.

“Dino, we’ll talk about this at home,” Han announces, probably to calm his partner. “You should have stayed in your room like I asked you to.”

“It’s not his fault,” Minyua says, voice embarrassingly high. “I fought those guys before, I let them escape…”

“People break out of jail all the time, darling,” Han shrugs. “And you don’t kill. I don’t blame you for that, children shouldn’t dirty their hands like that.”

“I’m not a child.”

“That’s not the point. Stop feeling guilty. The idiot was after my kid because he’s _my_ kid, it wasn’t because of you.”

“Dino is hurt,” Jisoo remembers with a grimace. “Dino, we should go to the hospital, I’m sorry for making you wait like that.”

The kid accepts to leave the fairy’s arms, making grabby hands at Jisoo. He looks so young, so small and vulnerable, Minyua’s mouth moves on its own.

“Can I come,” he blurts out.

Han frowns, like he’s worried, and a villain really shouldn’t look so sweet and pretty. “Are you hurt?”

Minyua shakes his head. “No, it’s not that, I just want to make sure Dino is okay.”

It’s stupid and he knows it. Two of the most feared villains are in front of him and he asks for more time with them instead of running away and praying they forget his face.

Han and Jisoo look at each other and Minyua just knows they’re soulmates. A chemistry like that is hard to develop, even between soulmates, it’s amazing. Jisoo nods, then Han offers him his hand and Minyua realizes he’s still kneeling. He takes it. His palms are covered by his gloves, but his fingers can feel Han’s warm, amazingly soft skin. Everything about the two angels is beautiful, in a deadly way.

“Okay, but not dressed like that. Jisoo will go get some civilian clothes, he’ll bring you a hoodie and sunglasses.”

“We’re not interested in your secret identity, Minyua,” Jisoo explains when he notices Minyua’s surprise. “You saved Dino,” the kid smiles at him, “we owe you one, like Hannie said. Beside, we only hurt the ones who dare to touch what’s ours, you’re safe.”

Jisoo gives Dino to Han, who takes him in his arms with a tenderness Minyua never thought he’d see in a villain, and leaves. He comes back less than five minutes later, carrying a bag. While Minyua gets a hoodie, sunglasses and a bucket hat, the other two make their wings disappear, take their jacket off and put a dress shirt over their uniform. With their sunglasses on, they look like celebrities. Minyua looks… he’s glad Minghao isn’t here to make fun of him.

They call a taxi and Dino falls asleep sitting on Han’s lap, but his head’s resting on Minyua’s shoulder. It’s adorable.

“What’s our story?”

“I tripped and fell down the stairs,” Dino mumbles, rubbing his eyes. “They’re my brothers.”

“What about me?”

Han shrugs. “You can say you’re our sugar baby.”

Minyua trips – seriously, what’s wrong with “his” villains? –, falls and can’t get up. Well, at least he’s in front of an hospital.

“You should have told us you were that hurt,” Han scolds him.

“I honestly had no idea it was that bad. It was worth it though.”

Jisoo snorts. After Minyua fell, they quickly realized he was unable to get up, so Han went inside to get help. That’s how the fairy met Choi Seungcheol and almost fainted when the man took him in his arms – only to put him in a wheelchair three seconds later – because _holy shit it should be illegal to be that hot_.

And yeah, he said that out loud. The two villains laughed so hard Han almost dropped Chan. The nurse scolded them with a fondness in his voice and, judging by the staff greeting them once they were in, it isn’t their first time coming to this hospital.

“I’m okay.”

His nose is bleeding and everything hurts (he’ll probably have a limp for a few days if he doesn’t go to Jennie’s house) but he’s fine. It’s really not that bad compared to the thought of staying in bed and wasting time he could spend studying.

“You are _not_ leaving this bed now,” Jisoo stops him, hand on his chest to force him back on the bed. “Cheol would kill me and Han would be a single father, I can’t do that to Dino.”

“I came here for Dino,” he protests, but lets the villain take the blanket Seungcheol gave him to cover him, pulling it up to his chin.

“Seungcheol doesn’t give a fuck about that, you’re hurt too.”

“But I have to study! I can’t spend the night in bed!”

“You can’t even _walk_ ,” Jisoo hisses – fuck, he’s terrifying – then sighs. “College?”

“… yes.” He’s an idiot.

“It’s okay if you don’t answer, secret identity and all, but what do you need to study?”

Minyua raises an eyebrow. “History. I hate it.”

“Oh, I like history.” Jisoo sits next to his bed. “We’re not making an habit out of this,” he warns him. “But I can help you with that. What are you studying?”

“Fights between humans and monsters. Our teacher is against monsters.” History used to be fun, but not anymore.

Minyua does an awful job at hiding the hurt and bitterness in his voice. The angel looks up from his phone, suddenly awkward and blushing from what must be embarrassment.

“Oh. Uh, nothing in this class is completely true, it’s all biased and, well, you shouldn’t let it affect you. Like, those things don’t define who you are, and, y’know, it’s not a bad thing to be you, and you’re someone… like, a person, with feelings and all, like, you matter… and all that stuff…”

That’s… nice. Awkward, but Jisoo tried, with the eyes of someone who would have needed to be told something like that.

“I know,” Minyua replies, his voice barely louder than a whisper. “Thank you.”

They do anything to avoid looking the other in the eyes, doing their best to ignore the awkward silence in the room. Minyua meant it though: he has to admit he often comes home with teary eyes because of all the shit people say about his kind. The class is mandatory and trying to avoid it would be suspicious. It’s nice to see Jisoo look after his own, even if they’re (technically) enemies.

Jisoo finally breaks the silence. “From my experience, just talk about monsters in a bad way – using that word and not ‘magical beings’ or whatever – and you’ll be fine.”

Minyua chuckles. “Thanks, I’ll make sure to bitch about, about those people.”

“No need to worry about your words, everyone in this hospital is like us.”

Someone knocks at the door. Minyua groans and almost hides under the blanket when Seungcheol opens the door.

“Don’t be like that, I’ve heard worse. How are you?”

“Tired.”

“And about all those bruises, that blood… Okay, I get it. I’ll have a healer coming in a few minutes, try not to leave that bed and, you know, get yourself killed because you’re an idiot who doesn’t know how to take care of himself.”

Minyua raises an eyebrow. Seungcheol sounds more exasperated than mad.

“This isn’t my fault.”

“Really, what’s wrong with you guys, never respecting your limits and all that shit,” the nurse grumbles as he leaves the room.

“He’s always like that,” Jisoo laughs when Minyua turns to him. “He cares a bit too much, which is why he’s always so annoyed at us. Now, I guess it’s like that with you too.”

“He just met me.”

Jisoo looks at his nails. “And? You were ready to die for Dino and you didn’t – still don’t – even know his name.”

“He’s a child.”

“And so are you. Look, I get it, you’re in college and all, but we’re angels. Han has been alive for centuries, your aura shows you’re in your twenties, and _early_ twenties. Don’t get yourself killed at such a young age.”

Minyua blinks. Jisoo clears his throat. “Whatever. Let’s just study.”

Han joins them half an hour later, Dino in his arms.

“How old is he?”

“He turned seventeen in February.”

“Oh. He looks… younger.”

“Yeah. Dragons can choose how they age, it’s weird. The kid didn’t really get a happy childhood so he just decided to stay a child until he has the chance to, you know, make some positive memories about growing up.”

Minyua frowns. “That’s sad.”

“Maybe a bit, but, when you think about it, he now has a chance of remembering mostly happy things when he’ll think about his childhood. We’re making sure of it.”

Dino wiggles in Han’s arms, asking to be put down, and runs to Minyua’s bed when the villain finally lets him go. His eyes are shining with playful childness, but there’s something more, something… wise, old. Minyua wonders how old he really is.

“I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Still, I’m sorry.”

Dino stays silent after that, but he holds Minyua’s hand as Jisoo helps him, frowning at most of the things they say. Minyua wishes he wouldn’t have to hear such things, but he can’t hide from the world, from humans.

As Seungcheol promised, a healer comes. His name is Hansol and he’s nice, but too tired to completely heal him. It’s okay, at least his leg doesn’t hurt that much. Minyua almost felt like telling him to go take a nap instead of healing him when he saw the dark circles under Hansol’s eyes, but the pain was getting too much and he has to admit he’s glad Hansol came.

“Look,” Han sighs, “we’re not close or anything, but I know I won’t be sleep if I don’t give you at least some pieces of advice.”

“You don’t have to,” Minyua starts, but the villain interrupts him.

“I like to sleep, thank you very much. Try not to use too much magic, to rely on your body more. Buy some weapons if you have to, shooting takes less energy than spells and you can’t allow yourself to faint in the middle of a fight. Try to get a partner if you can, someone you can rely on. Learn more spells, practice them enough to be able to use them without using too much energy. Easy spells can be quite deadly if you know how to use them, I believe you’re inventive enough for that.”

“Overall, just be more careful,” Jisoo adds. “What you’re doing is dangerous, but the risks don’t have to always be that high. You could have fought those guys without risking your life like that.”

“I know, I, I panicked.”

“Yeah, try not to do that again. We won’t always be there.”

Han’s eyes are cold, serious. “Without us, you’d be dead. You won’t always be this lucky.”

Minyua gulps and nods. They’re right, he’s only alive because he got lucky, but with his luck… yeah, he’d rather not risk it.

“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you. For saving me, for helping me with history, for that talk about our people, for… for everything you did, I guess.”

Han looks at Jisoo, Jisoo looks at Han, they stare at each other for a long minute. Dino rolls his eyes, playing with Minyua’s fingers. “Just give it to him.”

Han sighs and takes something in his pocket. “Look, don’t use this unless you absolutely have to, but… if something like tonight happens again, if you need help, if something is bigger than what you can handle, call us and we’ll be there.” He hands him an earpiece. Minyua almost laughs at the little wing drawn on it.

“We have things to do, so don’t call us unless it’s a matter of life or death. And,” Jisoo gives him a piece of paper, “that’s Seungcheol’s number. Call him if you’re hurt.”

Minyua feels like crying, but he already felt embarrassed enough for the whole week. “Thank you.”

Jisoo avoids his eyes. “Please don’t talk about it. We don’t need people to think we got soft and you probably don’t want to get kidnapped so some clown can get to us.”

“Of course, I won’t say anything about this,” Minyua promises, then clears his throat. “Uh, I hope you won’t take this the wrong way, but… why are you helping me? I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but you guys are villains, and I’m, uh, a hero. Why are you helping a random person?”

The Fallen Angels look at each other, again. Minyua wonders if they communicate like that most of the time.

“I think it’s because you’re young,” Han says, shrugging like he doesn’t really know why he’s helping a total stranger. “And you helped Dino. Also, you’re one of our kind. A lot of us don’t feel any solidarity towards others like you and me, but we do.”

“You know, I almost became a hero like you,” Jisoo smiles at him, a sincere, kind smile, not the smirk that screams danger he likes to show on photos. “You’re like a younger version of me if I made another choice years ago.”

A bit less than an hour later, Dino falls asleep – for real this time – and they leave. Minyua waits for a bit, not wanting them to think he’s following them, before leaving too. He doesn’t forget to thank Vernon for healing him and Seungcheol for not only taking care of him but also giving him his number.

When he gets home, he takes a quick shower, changes into his pajamas, hides his earpiece in his backpack and slides in Minghao’s bed, happily sighing when his sleeping friend hugs him. Without Minghao, he doesn’t think he can sleep without nightmares and he knows the other won’t mind, he never did before. He snuggles closer to him and falls asleep almost as soon as he closes his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

_Without us, you’d be dead. You won’t always be this lucky._

“That exam wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be.”

Mingyu shrugs. “I think I’ll pass, but I don’t think it’ll be that good. I was… distracted.”

The time spent studying with Jisoo definitely helped, but Han’s words refused to leave him alone. Minghao probably noticed it since, for once, he didn’t say anything about his obvious limp, carrying his things without being asked.

The pain is annoying, Mingyu got tired of it after a few hours and texted his sister. Jennie offered him to spend the night at her house and told him to bring Minghao if he wanted to, even if the Chinese boy doesn’t know about them not being humans. For a reason she refuses to tell him, Jennie is uncomfortable around humans. Knowing how much Minghao means to Mingyu, she tries to be more at ease with him and it makes Mingyu happy. He’ll never thank her enough for that.

Minghao is talking about his makeup for his date with Junhui, but Mingyu isn’t listening. The thought of dying is scary.

“Hao, I’m sorry, but I need to call my mom…”

Minghao hugs him. It lasts for less than three seconds, but it still makes him feel better. “Okay. Want me to leave?”

They’re on their way home. If Minghao continues without him, he’ll have to walk alone. He doesn’t want to be alone.

“No.” _Please stay._

Minghao gets his earphones out of his pocket to give him some privacy and takes his hand, squeezing it before interlacing their fingers. He pretends it’s to guide Mingyu – and old joke between them since the day Mingyu ran into a pole while talking to his mother on the phone – despite both of them knowing it’s not (only) for that.

His mother answers exactly five seconds after he pressed the phone call button – Mingyu and Minghao count them, another joke between them – and Minghao whispers a “late by two seconds” in his ear. It makes him chuckle. Judging by Minghao’s smile, that’s the point.

“Hi mom,” he starts, blinking away tears at his mother’s voice.

He could have died. His hands shake and both his mother and Minghao notice how far from okay he is.

“Gyu, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just tired,” he lies, squeezing Minghao’s hand. Minghao squeezes back. “I’m sorry to bother you, but would it be okay if I came over this week? I miss cooking with you.”

_I miss you._

“You’re never bothering us, darling. Of course you can, you can come over now if you want. We could cook together, it’s been a while.”

“Not today, I’m already eating at Jennie’s.”

“Oh.” Her voice turns cold for a second before it goes back to its usual warmth. Mingyu almost thinks he imagined it. “Let’s say tomorrow then?”

“Perfect. I love you.”

“I love you too. You can always come to me when you’re upset, you know that?”

“Yeah. Thanks mom, I… Have a nice day. Bye.”

He waits for her to hang up before doing so. Minghao gently takes his phone.

“So, we’re spending the night at Jennie’s house?”

Bless Xu Minghao. “Yeah, bring your things for tomorrow.”

“Do you think I could borrow some of Chaeyoung’s shampoo? Her hair always looks amazing.”

Mingyu snorts. “I don’t think so, she’s still mad at you for managing to make a mullet look good.”

“That’s a lie, you know she loves me.”

Minghao keeps his mind busy, talking about hair, soulmates and Seungkwan (in that order) until they’re home. Then, when he notices the sadness in Mingyu’s face (he’s always been an open book to anyone who knows him), he takes him to his room and starts chatting about their clothes for dinner.

“Hao, it’s my sister, not Coco Chanel,” Mingyu says, rolling his eyes with a fond smile. “They’ll probably be in joggings and old shirts, nothing fancy.”

“She’s like Coco Chanel’s _daughter_ , Gyu. And have you seen them in joggings? I’d let them step on me, but to be honest, they could wear trash bags and still look amazing.”

He has a point and, anyway, Mingyu finds it incredibly relaxing and comforting when Minghao does his makeup or his nails. It always gives him inspiration for his art.

“Alright, I’m wearing the Gucci belt, you can take the shirt.”

Mingyu falls asleep while Minghao paints his nails and wakes up with a blanket on his shoulders, his best friend shaking him.

“Time to go, sleepy boy. I’m driving.”

“You don’t have your licence.”

“Well, we won’t get arrested, so we won’t need it.”

Mingyu almost falls asleep in the car, but his sleepiness disappears when Chaeyoung, one of Jennie’s best friends, runs to them. Minghao winces when the door slams against the wall. Mingyu doesn’t care: he gets out of the car and catches the young woman when she throws herself at him.

“Noona, why are you acting like it’s been years?” Mingyu laughs before putting her back on her feet (she’s taller than his sister and her friend, but still so much smaller than him).

She beams at him. “I learned a new song! Come in, I want to show you.”

Minghao smiles fondly at something written on his arm. “Junhui plays the piano too.”

Chaeyoung gasps and claps, jumping around him like a child. She’s usually more reserved, Mingyu loves seeing her so happy, so excited.

“You found your soulmate? That’s amazing, Minghao!”

“Come in and close the door, you know Jennie hates bugs!”

Mingyu chuckles and Chaeyoung rolls her eyes, smiling. Jisoo’s voice is softer than soft, her scolding isn’t really effective. Mingyu remembers her using it when he was a kid: often victim of nightmares, he’d come to her and she’d read him stories, making her voice as harsh as possible when she was playing the villains. For someone as soft as Kim Jisoo, it was pretty much destined to fail (and it did, he never found her scary in any way), but he appreciates her for trying. Jennie and Jisoo did their best to take care of the little boy he was when his parents were too busy to entertain their son.

“What brings you here?” Jennie asks him with a grin, kissing his cheek when he steps in (and, of course, closes the door behind him). “Hi, Hao.”

“What? Can’t I come visit my sister because I’m an amazing brother?” he scoffs, eyes sparkling at the laugh his (fake) offended pout brings from Jennie.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Gyu, but it’s been a while,” Lisa shrugs. “Of course, it’s understandable, with your studies. We’re all proud of you.”

Yeah, his studies. That’s his excuse for pretty much everything to hide his life as Minyua. When he didn’t have time to do something, he says it’s because he had to write an essay or study for an exam. When he wakes up late, he says it’s because he spent the night studying. He can’t come to a family dinner or hang out with his friends? That’s because he’s studying and not because he saw or felt someone who needs Minyua’s help. He can’t help but feel guilty: he keeps lying to the people he loves and the worst thing about it is that they’re sincerely proud of him. That’s why he keeps asking Wonwoo to tutor him. Without his help, he’d fail his classes. It’s pretty ironic, but with all his time spent as Minyua, he has no time to study.

“I’m sorry, I’ll try to come more often,” he says, but he always says it and he never comes back more than twice in a month. Lisa is kind enough to believe him, or at least she pretends she does.

“Don’t worry about that, focus on your studies,” Jennie hugs him, looking even smaller than she is, “we’ll do something together to celebrate when you’ll be done.”

They all sit in the living room, Chaeyoung almost tripping on her way to the piano. It’s great to see her so happy and excited for something. The four girls did and still do so much to make him happy, he loves seeing them smile too.

“You’re staying for dinner, right?” Jisoo asks even though he already said he would. “We’re eating pizza!”

“Yeah, we wouldn’t want to miss it, that’s why we came here. What? You thought we were here for you? Ew, never.”

Minghao once told him he turns into a child when he’s with the girls (before adding that no, he didn’t mean it in a bad way, it’s cute and he loves to see him being so carefree since he’s almost always stressed and worried). He can’t deny it. With them, he whines, he pouts, he teases them, he acts like he’s five and they let him. It makes them laugh, so he keeps doing it. After all, they saw him grow up, they’re probably not used to him being an adult. He hopes they’ll stop seeing him as a child one day, but that can wait. For now, he goes with it and lets them baby him.

“Shut up,” Lisa groans and punches his shoulder. “Rosie is playing.”

It’s beautiful and, like the others, he claps when she’s done, cheers like she just won a gold medal at the Olympics. Of course, she blushes and tells them to stop overdoing it. It’s cute. No matter what one of them does, the others always do their best to support them. Minghao too, because after spending so much time with Mingyu, he’s basically his brother, a member of the family too.

It’s sad. Mingyu never really appreciated or even realized it before almost dying. He’d miss all of them so much, he’d miss their relationship and the time spent together. His death would also make them sad and he doesn’t want them to be sad because of him. He’ll visit his parents too, tomorrow. He’ll hang out with Wonwoo out of their tutoring hours. He’ll go to a painting night or an art museum with Minghao. He’ll spend time with his loved ones to enjoy what he would have lost, because what if he dies and they regret never really spending time with him before his death?

“What kind of pizza do you want, boys?” Jennie asks them, phone against her ear, because Mingyu was so distracted he dozed off long enough for them to move on from Chaeyoung’s improvised concert.

“The kind that I can eat,” Minghao answers, throwing something at Mingyu. “Gyu, you’re playing Mario Kart with us?”

That too, he’d miss it.

“Yeah, of course. Order anything for me, Jen, I’m so hungry I’d eat anything. Anything except pineapples, though.”

“Coward.”

“Call it fear if you want to, I call it being smart.”

Mingyu gets destroyed at Mario Kart until he gets tired of losing and starts kicking and pushing the others to distract them. They’re more than happy to fight back. They eat pizza, Minghao drops his slice on the white couch (but it’s already decorated with lots of spots, so the girls swear it doesn’t matter and it’s not the end of the world), Mingyu almost cries when he sees they made cookies when they learned he was coming, they all eat too much and get a bit sick… it’s a mess, and he loves it.

“I’m never eating again,” he moans, sprawled out on the ruined white couch. “That was so good. Thanks, girls.”

“No problem, Gyu, now get your giant ass off the couch if you really love me.”

“Sorry, even my love for you has its limits,” he teases her, but still curls up so Jennie can sit next to him.

“Does anyone want to watch a movie?”

Lisa gets positive answers and gets up, asking them to choose something to watch while she makes popcorn. Mingyu watches her leave the living room with round eyes.

“How the fuck is she still hungry?”

Minghao kicks him. “Because she didn’t eat more than half a pizza like you did, dumbass.”

Mingyu tries to kick him back, but gives up after almost falling off the couch. “You’re dumber than me.”

“You’re both dumb, shut up.”

Halfway through the movie, Mingyu curls up against Jennie. Eyes on the screen, she rubs his back, like she did when he was a child and ate too much. Things didn’t change much.

“I’m going to the parents’ tomorrow, do you want to come with me?”

She sighs and takes her hand back. He can feel the ice in her glare and, for what’s not the first time and definitely not the last one, he thanks every kind of magic in this world that Jennie can’t shoot lasers with her eyes or he’d be dead.

“Mingyu, you know I don’t want to see them. Hell, I don’t know if I could if I wanted to.”

“Jen, they love you, they were angry back then but it’s been years,” he whines.

“Mingyu, I said no.”

She sounds angry, but sad, hurt, and he regrets asking. Jisoo looks at them, frowns, but doesn’t say anything. She’s giving him a chance to solve it on his own and he loves her for that.

“I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to see them and I shouldn’t have asked,” he whispers, forehead against her shoulder. “I’m sorry, I just… I just miss seeing my family together.”

She doesn’t say anything, but she starts rubbing his back again and he knows he’s forgiven.

They leave after the movie, refusing Lisa’s offer to spend the night. It’s not that they don’t want to, but Minghao works in the morning and Mingyu really needs to study a bit. After using that excuse so many times, he prefers to stay quiet and just follow Minghao instead of talking about studying again. Since they think he already studies often, it’d be weird to insist on how much he needs it right now.

He’s failing his classes, but that, only Wonwoo needs to know. Wonwoo, who believes he’s so busy because he often hangs out with friends. It’s funny how he uses one side as an excuse for the other and vice-versa. Well, funny… Mingyu really feels bad. Lying, avoiding them, it makes his stomach hurt sometimes, so he promises himself he’ll stop soon. He doesn’t know when that’ll be (when most of the villains will be gone? At the end of the year?), but that promise helps him feel better so he tries not to think about it. Seeing his parents will probably help, he needs to spend some time with his family.

Well, Jennie still hates them, so he doubts he’ll ever see his whole family together. He misses it. His sister left when he was still a child and he doesn’t really remember how his family used to be, but he loves both sides so he misses it. Watching them together… Mingyu would love to see it. Jennie doesn’t want it though, and he needs to respect that.

“Love you,” he says as Jennie hugs him.

When she lets go, she takes his hand, kisses the palm and closes his fingers around it, like he wants to keep her kiss. She started doing this when he went to school for the first time, because he wasn’t used to leave his family and didn’t want to be with strangers. She kissed his hand, told him her kiss would stay there and he spent years pressing his hand against his cheek like an indirect kiss, a reminder his sister loves him and is waiting for him. Years later, she still does, but he doesn’t need hand kisses to remember that. Still, it’s nice, and he lets her do it.

(If he puts his hand against his cheek sometimes, well, she doesn’t need to know that.)

“Love you too,” she says when she drops his hand. “Good luck with your studies and good night.”

He falls asleep in the car and Minghao wakes him up by dropping him after trying to carry him to his room (but Mingyu is so big he only gets him out of the car before tripping and falling). It’s the thought that matters, so Mingyu isn’t mad, not even when he wakes up the next morning and sees his bruised cheek. For once, the bruises don’t come from a villain. It’s a funny thought.

“Do you want me to wake you up at a specific hour?” Minghao asks, because he knows Mingyu can’t fall asleep if he only has an alarm even though he told him multiple times that he doesn’t have to be so worried about everything.

“No, I don’t have classes in the morning and I’m only meeting Wonwoo after dinner, but thanks.”

Minghao shrugs and walks to his room, eyes on his phone as he texts someone (probably Junhui).

“’k. Good night.”

“Good night,” he says, but he knows he’s not about to go to bed. The costume in his closet calls him, reminds him that he has a job to do.

Kim Mingyu goes to his room. Five minutes later, Minyua leaves by the window.

“Awn, angel, you look so tired,” his mom sighs when she opens the door. “I know you care about your studies a lot, but are you sure it’s not too much for you?”

“No, really, I love what I’m doing so it’s worth it,” he smiles.

It’s true. Studying while also being a hero is tiring, but he loves both his lives.

“I asked Jennie to come, but… Jennie, well, you know. She said no.”

Her mother’s eyes go dark when he mentions his sister, probably because she already knows her answer. He can only try to imagine how hard it must be for his parents to know that one of their children doesn’t want to have any kind of interaction with them. Ever since Jennie left the house, she refused to see them unless it was to drop Mingyu at her apartment and it seems like she will always do her best to keep it that way.

“I didn’t insist this time, sorry.”

“I hope so,” she sighs. “You shouldn’t even ask her, angel, she’ll never come back.”

Oh. He thought his parents would like to know he’s still trying to make her come home, but he never thought it could hurt them to know she’d always choose to refuse his offer. It makes sense. They’re probably trying to forget whatever happened between them and he’s only making it worse by reminding them that their daughter doesn’t want to see them.

Well, that’s just another thing he can’t do right. He should be used to failing, by now.

Before he can think about how he’s the worst son ever, his father takes him to the living room, where he sits on the couch and politely refuses a beer because it’s not even lunch. He looks around him, inhales the sweet perfume of home and family, listens to the voices like it’s the last time he hears his parents. After what happened, he knows it could be the last time he’s doing all these things, so he wants to enjoy them and take some time to really appreciate them.

Even if their son is unusually quiet, his parents don’t say anything. They talk about his studies, about Wonwoo, frown when he tells them about Minghao’s soulmate (he’s pretty sure his mother thought they were made for each other, even though he never saw Minghao as more than his best friend) and ask him about his art. It’s been a while since the last time he drew or painted something and he misses it. He knows his parents didn’t want him to study arts, so it warms his heart to see how hard they try to talk about things that he likes. His mother shows him a teasing grin when he tells them he didn’t draw anything lately and he smiles back.

They’re not that bad, really. They seem strict and he had to argue a bit to defend his decision to study in architecture, but he knows they would support him no matter what, even if he chose to switch to some kind of art related program. Hell, it’s been years since they last saw Jennie and they still want to see her. They just stopped asking, because she hated it and always ignored the messages Mingyu gave her from them, but he knows they miss her. He doesn’t know what he’d do without Jennie, doesn’t want to even think about it. Losing his sister… that’d be a nightmare. He dreams about it sometimes, and these nightmares always end with him waking up in tears and Minghao letting him sleep with him.

(Well, now that he found his soulmate, Mingyu doesn’t know if he still has a cuddle buddy, but Junhui is a pretty nice guy as clingy as him so he probably understands cuddles can be platonic. He likes Junhui, he’s glad Minghao has such an amazing soulmate. He can’t wait to meet his.)

He spends an hour chatting with his parents. After half of it, he ran out of things to say, but he didn’t want to leave, not yet. He guesses it’s time to go when his father starts talking about a coworker’s daughter. He’s not interested in letting his parents playing Cupids, especially knowing that his soulmate is a man and surely not the daughter. He’ll respect his soulmate’s decision if he chooses to be friends and not boyfriends, but until then, he doesn’t want to meet someone else knowing he’s waiting for another. That’d be rude.

“Thanks, but I’m too busy to date. Sorry to stop this now, but I really have to go, Wonwoo is waiting for me.”

Well, Wonwoo isn’t, but he can study a bit before their meeting. The other gave him worksheets to practice and he didn’t even look at them. Fuck. Really, daughter or not, it’s time to leave.

“Come back soon, darling, we missed you,” his mother sighs as she walks him to the door.

She hugs him and he waits for her to let go. His mother’s hugs are nice, not as perfect as Jennie’s or Minghao’s, but still nice, because they come from his mom. His smile falters a bit when he thinks about how devastated she would be if he died. He has to try to be more careful, he can’t make his family and friends go through the pain of losing someone they love.

“I’ll try to! Have a nice day, I love you.”

He closes the door before she has time to see the tears in his eyes.

Mingyu was walking home after spending hours at the library with Wonwoo when he saw the vampire biting a child, a small body on the floor behind him (not dead, but almost, the water told him). After calling Seungcheol, he used his magic to change clothes and threw a book – not smart, he has to admit, it’s wet, he probably won’t get it back and it was pretty much useless – at the vampire. He didn’t expect him to be so good at fighting, and after hours of studying, he definitely doesn’t have as much energy as he would have liked to.

Knowing that, he ran to a building, trying to get his opponent away from the children. After flying to the third floor, he realized he just couldn’t keep running away or the vampire would get tired and go back to biting civilians, so that’s why he’s now struggling to dodge the attacks, all thoughts of attacking back now forgotten. It’s not even defense at this point, it’s just survival. If he doesn’t find a way out of this, the vampire _will_ get him, it’s only a matter of time.

Minyua jumps back with a yelp. The vampire he’s fighting isn’t as “nice” as Hoshi and he almost misses the other villain. This vampire is strong, probably older, which makes him more powerful, and fights to kill. Minyua doesn’t regret provoking him though, the asshole was feeding on _children_. However, he’d like to stay alive.

“ _Depri_ ,” he whimpers after the vampire’s sword – yep, a sword, he’s definitely an old one – slashes through his skin, leaving his back a red mess. The vampire’s hand catches on fire. Fuck, he lost so much energy he can’t make his whole body burn. His back hurts, but he considers himself lucky his opponent missed – barely – his wings. A fairy without wings… Minyua, like any fairy, would rather die than lose his wings and the vampire knows it. That’s just cruel.

Once again, he’s reminded of how horrible people can be, humans or not. The vampire isn’t even using his strength, he’s just playing with him like a predator plays with his prey.

A hit to his left knee makes him fall and he rolls on his stomach to avoid getting a sword in the nose. He makes his wings disappear and the second he uses to do so is enough for the vampire to press him against the floor, claws digging into his wrists. He’s trapped under the monster – there’s no better word for it – and, with his face crushed on the ground, he can’t open his mouth to use magic.

“You know, pretty boy,” there’s _something_ in the vampire’s voice and Minyua wants to be wrong so badly, hoping it’s not what he thinks it is, “I’ve always wanted to know what fairy blood tastes like.”

He bites him.

It hurts, more than a bleeding nose, more than a twisted ankle, more than a broken arm, and Minyua knows begging would be useless. He’s gonna die, he’s dying.

Pain tastes like lemon and jalapeño, like kissing his ex knowing he’s cheating on him, breaking up with him and _still missing him because he’s as stupid as_ he _said_.

And then there’s a voice, one that sounds familiar. _Play dead_ , it says. _Body, slack, NOW._

Wonwoo. His conscience (?) sounds like Wonwoo. He remembers how the older boy used to be (probably still is) his voice of reason, so he obeys. It’s not like he has something to lose.

Believing his victim is now too weak to fight, the vampire lets go of one of his wrists to slide a hand under his crop top. Minyua’s blood turns to ice. He never thought his outfit would get him more than a few mocking comments.

But one of his hands is free now and he feels dust on the floor. He doesn’t think he ever drew a rune that fast. It’s a dangerous one, it’s risky, but the hand keeps getting lower and lower and he’d rather die than go through this.

Minyua finishes the rune, canines still in his neck, and closes his eyes as an explosion destroys the ceiling and the walls around them.

He doesn’t die. It’s painful, it hurts, but he doesn’t die. Parts of the ceiling fall on them, crushing the vampire and pushing his teeth deeper into Minyua’s neck, but he’s not dead. Not yet.

Minyua is stuck under a building, he can feel his blood leaving his body, but he’s still alive, knowing it’s not for long. He finds it cruel, how he has to wait for his death, unable to do anything. The realization hits him and that’s when he loses it and starts crying. Tears fall on his cheeks, but he used all his energy to make the building explode. There’s nothing left. He can’t breathe, he can breathe too much, he feels like he’s drowning in oxygen, with too much of it to properly breathe. It’s like he forgot how – in and out and in and out and in and in and in and in and he just can’t get it out anymore. He chokes on his sobs, hyperventilates and shakes because he doesn’t want to die, not like that, and he’s terrified.

The Fallen Angels were right, he should have given up on Minyua, on the hero life. He’s dying – oh my god please no he doesn’t want to die _please someone pleasehelppleasehelpplease_ – and he’s dying _alone_. He’s not ready to die yet, he wants to stay alive, he doesn’t want to go now.

After the explosion, everything is dark. He can’t see, he’s shivering from the cold and the only thing he can feel is the vampire’s cold, dead body on him. There’s dust everywhere and he doesn’t know if he has trouble breathing because of that or his panic (or maybe the fact he’s crushed against the floor, on his stomach).

Mingyu wants his mother.

He wants his mother to hug him, to read him a story, to tuck him in bed, to kiss his forehead, his nose, to tell him he’s safe and everything is okay. God, he wants his mother.

He’s dying – _nononononosomeonepleasehelppleasepleaseplease_ – and he never told his mother how much he loved her. He never told Jennie how he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. He never said goodbye to Wonwoo, to Minghao, to…

Minghao. Who has a soulmate. Like him. He, too, has someone he can communicate with by writing on his arms and that someone seems to always stay up at night. For the first time, Mingyu is glad his soulmate has a horrible, unhealthy sleep schedule.

Adrenaline wakes him up, drags him out of the panic he’s drowning in. One arm is stuck under the vampire – blood falling from the wrist, claws still in it – but the other can move. The other can reach it. The other can write.

He has ink (red, sticky). He can write.

So he wipes some blood from his wound and writes a simple message.

_help_

He can’t see it, but he feels his soulmate writing on his own arm. He’s sobbing, harder than before, because he’s not alone anymore.

_can’t see dark bleeding_

He writes the address and Seungcheol’s number and, for a second, he smiles through his tears.

Mingyu can’t feel the pain anymore, even knowing it’s still there. His soulmate knows, someone knows, he can call Seungcheol. Most importantly, he’s not alone anymore.

Hope tastes like his mother’s apple pies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess what!! the next chapter will be from hoshi's pov :D
> 
> talk to me on twitter please i'm lonely


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> everyone says thank you dia/sooah for making me update! i'm really sorry guys, i didn't notice how long it's been since the last update.
> 
> by the way, my twitter account got suspended :( i'm on @mekiglow now! if i can get mekimingyu back, i'll use mekiglow to tweet updates about how my writing's going (which i will tweet even if i don't get mekimingyu back, just mixed with tweets about my faves/life), so follow me there if you want to know when a fic will be updated (you can also dm me about it, i never really notice how long it's been since the last update). i'll also post stuff like moodboards, videos, playlists, etc!

In jail, a second feels like a minute. A minute, like an hour. An hour, like a day.

Jihoon rolls his eyes. “You’ve never been in jail for more than ten minutes, dumbass. Anyway, you’re out, it’s your turn.”

“I hate Monopoly,” Soonyoung whines. “I don’t know how I always spend most of the game in jail.”

“I have no idea why,” Stray snickers, eyes on the cards.

Soonyoung gasps. Playing with a witch can be fun, but not when he uses his magic to cheat!

“You’d do the same if you could.”

“Stop reading my mind, Jihoon! Guys, we agreed not to use any magic!”

“It’s not in the rules.”

“We added one for that, it’s in the booklet…”

Said booklet shines purple for a second. “Not anymore.”

Before they start a (friendly… kind of) fight and break another Monopoly board, a cat jumps on the table, mewling at the witch. He gently lifts his familiar, kissing his silver fur (he once compared it to moonlight, which is pretty accurate).

“Sweetheart, I told you to stay away when we’re playing Monopoly, you know it can get violent.”

“It’s cold outside, he probably wants cuddles,” Soonyoung suggests, trying to pet the cat.

“Or he has a job for you.” Jihoon scratches the familiar behind the ears, which is extremely unfair since he never does the same to Soonyoung when the vampire is in his tiger body.

“A human boy got dumped by his girlfriend, who left him for a vampire,” Stray announces as he puts his mask on. Soonyoung has time to see how dark his eyes are. “So he somehow managed to catch said vampire and wants to expose her to sunlight in the morning.” His familiar adds something. “Oh, okay. He’s part of a family of hunters. And the girlfriends are Minkyung and Kyungwon.”

“This game got boring,” Jihoon declares before cleaning the table. “Let’s save a lesbian vampire instead. Link us.”

Jihoon’s telepath abilities combined with Stray’s magic and familiar are more than useful. Jihoon can stay at home while the cat follows the other two, showing him what’s happening through the magic linking their minds.

“I don’t think they need our help,” Soonyoung tries, but they’re bored and it’s impossible to stop Stray and Woozi when they join forces.

“We could stop at the bank on our way home, I want a new laptop.”

“Why don’t you just steal it?”

Stray’s smirk shines in the dark. “It’s funnier to rob a bank. More trouble for the cops, too.”

His friend moves, expecting Soonyoung to follow him. Rolling his eyes, Soonyoung takes his mask and leaves the house.

Hoshi isn’t surprised to see the hunter tied up, his ex-girlfriend growling at him. Judging by the cuffs still on Roa, he chained her to the walls. Hoshi guesses the cuffs are made of silver and the chains weren’t, which explains why Yuha couldn’t get rid of them. It’s weird how Roa, a vampire, couldn’t take them off herself, but they came from a hunter so Hoshi doubts they’re made of normal silver.

“Idiot,” Stray hisses through his teeth.

The werewolf doesn’t stop growling, but points at her girlfriend. Said girlfriend smiles.

“Hi guys! Can someone help? It’s silver,” she explains, showing them her cuffed wrists. “They’re enchanted too, I can’t use my strength…”

Without a word, Hoshi puts a glove on and crushes the cuffs as easily as if they were made of paper.

Roa blinks. “Oh.”

“The spell doesn’t work if you don’t touch it,” Soonyoung explains, then shrugs. “Experience. Now you know it.”

“Thanks.” And she smirks, blue-haired goddess dressed in black, the perfect vampire. Hoshi doubts he ever felt this proud before.

Minkyung isn’t much younger than him, but she’s the first vampire he turned, so he’ll always feel a bit overprotective of her. She’s the little sister he never had.

Kyungwon… the tensions between vampires and werewolves are real, but he doesn’t think Minkyung could get a better girlfriend. They’re perfect for each other, even without being soulmates.

“Yuha, if you don’t mind me asking, why were you with… him?”

She turns to him, silver hair shining in the moonlight that comes by the window. “I wasn’t really dating him, only using him to learn more about his family. And I’ve learned enough. Babe?”

That’s all Roa needs to jump and bite the guy. She drinks everything, doesn’t leave anything in the body (corpse). She knows better than to waste food.

“We’re planning on hunting the rest of the family,” Yuha announces like her girlfriend isn’t sucking the life out of someone (and not in a pleasant way). “Except the daughter, she didn’t do anything. Wanna help?”

“Of course, it would be our pleasure,” Hoshi purrs.

Suddenly, pain hits him. Something is wrong and everything seems to be screaming at him to leave, to run. He can only think about how _he_ needs his help, but who’s _he_?

“Hoshi? Are you okay?” Roa asks when he gasps and stops moving.

Stray already has his hands on him, searching for a curse or something. He’s the first one to see it.

“Oh,” he whispers, a hand tracing something on Hoshi’s arm.

In his pain and… _panic_ , he didn’t feel his soulmate writing on his arm. When he looks at it, he almost throws up.

_help_

It’s written in red and has a metallic smell. Without a word, Stray hands him a pen.

_are you okay_

“Please tell me that’s not blood.”

No one dares to say a thing. Two vampires, a witch and a werewolf… they know what blood looks like, smells like.

He gets an address and Seungcheol’s phone number (why Seungcheol’s, he has no idea), but he can’t move. His soulmate is dying, he can feel it.

Stray is the first one to talk. “Go. Bring him to the Blue Place, I’ll have healing potions ready. Or almost.” He pushes him towards the door. “ _Run_.”

He jumps by the window and runs, faster than he ever ran before. He only stops when he gets to the address and almost collapses. What used to be a building is nothing but ruins now, and he just knows his soulmate was in there when it got destroyed. Civilians are there too, watching but not doing anything. Fuckers.

“Get the fuck out of my way!” Hoshi growls, as intimidating as possible, and jumps. He can smell his soulmate, recognizing the smell of the blood on his arm.

He starts climbing on what’s left of the wall, guided by the blood, digging his fingers in the cement and the bricks. He stumbles in what must have been the third floor and sighs in relief when he hears a heartbeat, even if it’s weak. He carefully digs in the ruins, going slower than he’d like to, but he doesn’t want to do something that would make everything collapse and kill his soulmate.

He sees the vampire’s corpse first, growling at the sight of the teeth in the skin, the fingers keeping a wrist in place, the hand under the shirt. The fucker is already as dead as a vampire can be, but Hoshi almost regrets it, wishing he could have killed him himself.

Then he notices it. The black hood, the red crop top, the fingerless gloves. Golden skin covered in blood. The smell is familiar.

“Always running head first in trouble,” Hoshi mumbles.

Minyua. His soulmate is Minyua. Minyua is his soulmate.

He only needs a second to take one of the hardest decisions of his life: Minyua can’t know. He wipes out the blood on his soulmate’s forearm, making him groan.

Oh, he’s conscious.

“Hey, pixie boy, it’s me. Let me get rid of this bitch and then we can leave.”

Minyua curls on himself as soon as Hoshi throws the vampire away (head to the right and body to the left), hands on his neck and yanking on his crop top to try to hide more skin. Hoshi wants to kill.

“I won’t hurt you,” he drops to his knees, trying to seem the least intimidating possible. “I promise.”

Minyua is shaking and Hoshi feels useless, helpless. Minyua is just a boy trying to make the world a better place, he doesn’t deserve this. No one does, but Minyua… It’s so unfair.

His jacket is a gift from Stray, enchanted to be as warm as his body needs it to be, but he takes it off to put it on the fairy. Stray will understand, Minyua needs it more than he does.

“Minyua, Minyua,” he calls, snapping his fingers. “We need to get you out of here. Can I touch you?”

No, he can’t, and he understands. He’s a vampire too, one who fights him four times a week. Minyua is probably scared of him. He should have asked Stray to come with him.

“I’ll go get Stray, don’t, don’t move.” Idiot. He can’t.

He turns around and _freezes_ when Minyua calls him, a weak cry that breaks his heart even more.

“Don’t leave me alone,” he whispers, a hand reaching for him.

Hoshi would set the world on fire for his little spoon.

“I won’t hurt you,” he promises again. “Please, I have to touch you to get you out. Stray can heal you.”

He takes the hero in his arms, which is a bit awkward since he’s way taller than him, and waits for Minyua to pass an arm around his neck. It takes him longer than it should and it makes him whimper, but he does it and Hoshi can finally run. He doesn’t run as fast as he can, but he still makes it to the Blue Place in record time. The house is small and next to the sea, probably why Stray chose it. Being close to the water will help Minyua recover quickly, or Hoshi hopes so.

Stray kept the door open to him and he almost trips over his feet in his hurry. The witch looks like his heart stopped for a second and Hoshi is too worried to give him a teasing smile.

“On the couch, now,” Stray orders before running to the room he keeps his potions in.

Hoshi sets Minyua down on the couch – white, really, why did they buy a _white_ couch – and tries not to panic too much. He can’t do anything, can’t leave Minyua.

However, he’s not as worried as he was before joining Stray, which means he can fully realizes what this means. His soulmate hates him and they never really had an interaction that didn’t show their mutual hate. Of all the people in the world, his little spoon has to be Minyua.

Fuck. Maybe if he ignores it, he’ll forget Minyua is the one who made him blush so often. He can’t date _Minyua_.

“How did you find me?”

Hoshi could ignore it. He could be cold. He could say something rude, offensive… but Minyua’s voice is weak and even though he’s trying to hide it, he’s seeking for comfort. He went through what probably was the worst moment of his life and, just for this night, Hoshi decides to give him what he needs.

“I was close to the building when it collapsed and I was curious.”

“It didn’t collapse, it exploded.”

“It’s the same thing, smartass! You can barely talk, shut up and rest! But don’t fall asleep!” He’s not sure he’ll wake up.

Hoshi can almost feel Stray’s glaring at him. Whoops.

“I leave you for three minutes and you start yelling at him,” his friend sighs before shoving some bottles in his arms. “Hold this for me, drop one and you’ll die.”

“It’s explosive??”

“No, it’ll help me save his life and _I swear if he dies because you dropped something I’ll kill you myself and it will be slow and painful_.”

“Got it.”

He stays still, only moving when his friend asks for one of his bottles or to go get something from the kitchen. It’s a bit weird to see the witch make a life-saving potion with sink water in a Tupperware, but he doesn’t say anything, doesn’t joke about it like he would if his soulmate wasn’t dying.

His soulmate. Minyua, his soulmate. This is a mess, and he’s not sure if it’s one that can be fixed. He loves his soulmate, his little spoon, the one he was talking to, but Minyua… Minyua won’t love him back, not if he learns who he is.

Not that it matters for now, since he’s dying and might never get to learn who he is. Even though he’s not sure how he feels about his soulmate being Minyua, he doesn’t want him to die. Even without knowing he was his soulmate, he never hated him enough to wish his death.

“You’ll be fine,” Stray tells him, and Hoshi has a feel he’s talking to all of them, himself included. Maybe even mostly to himself.

Because Stray, always calm and chill Stray, is shaking so much he almost drops a bottle. Stray, who never panics, never shows anything other than boredom and confidence once he puts his mask on, has to read the incantation again and again because his voice keeps failing him. It makes Hoshi worry about his friend, but not about Minyua, not more than he already is. Whatever is on Stray’s mind won’t stop him from healing the fairy, he knows and trusts him.

However, he’s not sure Stray trust himself.

“Yeah, he will,” he says, looking into Stray’s eyes and hoping he’ll catch the “you will” in his.

Because if Stray doubts himself, Hoshi doesn’t, never. Stray is the smart one, the one who does what needs to be done even when he doesn’t like it, the one who can put his feelings aside to succeed. He’ll save Minyua, even if he’s not as calm as he probably wants to be.

Stray swallows, nods and takes a deep breath. In a blink, the witch is back in control, even though it’s not as perfect as it usually is.

“I’m almost done,” he says and looks at Minyua. “Make him sit up, we can’t have him die by choking on it.”

“That’d be pretty sad,” he agrees, but Minyua doesn’t comment. “Hey, pixie? You’re still with us?”

That’s when he notices the fairy’s eyes are closed and he swears his heart stops beating until he opens them again. Even if it’s to try to push him away (he has to admit he was shaking him a bit too hard for someone who’s bleeding out), he’s glad he gets a reaction.

“You have to stay awake, don’t close your eyes,” he almost begs because he’s _terrified_ that he’ll never open them again. He needs to talk to him, needs to see if he still wants this soulmate thing, but he mostly needs to know his little spoon is alive and breathing even if he decides that he doesn’t want Minyua to know him.

“Open his mouth,” Stray almost yells at him, a plastic glass in his hand. When this will be over, Hoshi will have to buy him decent witch stuff.

Minyua only struggles for a few seconds before giving up, probably deciding that Hoshi can be trusted for now (or maybe thinking that he’s about to die anyway). He goes limp as soon as he swallows the potion, but Stray doesn’t panic, so Hoshi guesses that’s normal.

“Don’t worry, he’s just sleeping. I thought it’d be better to have him asleep while the potion does its work, especially since he doesn’t trust us and I don’t trust you to stay in the same room without fighting.”

“I wouldn’t fight my dying soulmate,” Hoshi gasps, acting more offended than he is.

Okay, yeah, he’s not that stupid, but he can’t really blame his friend for not trusting his behaviour when it comes to Minyua. He _did_ try to push him off a building (wings or not), after all.

Stray sighs. “Yeah, we’ll have to talk about that too, just… not now. I’m exhausted. He’ll be fine, I’m pretty sure I did everything correctly. He’s a water fairy, they have healing magic.”

“Then why were you so stressed?”

“He was dying and his body wasn’t fast enough to heal itself, he needed some help and fast. Now that it’s done, I’d say he’s safe. Just stay awake to watch him, I’m gonna take a nap and I don’t want to wake up to a corpse, even if it’s yours.”

“What do you mean, _even_? _I’m_ your best friend!” But Stray is already gone, locking himself in one of the bedrooms they never use.

Great.

Minyua sleeps like the dead (no, he takes it back, can’t think about that) for hours, yet Stray is still in his room when the fairy wakes up. Being alone with him after learning he’s his soulmate isn’t ideal, but Hoshi has to admit he kind of signed up for that.

And if it means his little spoon is still alive, well, he can’t really complain.

“What happened?”

Both of them wince at Minyua’s voice. He really doesn’t look good (well, healthy) either.

“Shit, your voice is horrible. How’s your throat?”

Minyua shrugs. “Not that bad. What happened?”

Yeah, after getting crushed by a building and bitten by a vampire, a sore throat is probably not that high on his list of priorities. Still, Hoshi excuses himself for a moment so he can get him a glass of water. He’s never been so close to Minyua without fighting him, it feels weird, awkward, but not really uncomfortable. He’s not sure if that’s because he knows he’s his soulmate. It probably helps.

Minyua takes a few sips of his water, then raises the glass over his head and turns it over.

“We have a shower, you know.”

The fairy glares at him. “It’s not for that, and I’m not taking anything off as long as I’m in your… place.”

Hoshi really can’t blame him for his lack of trust, so he shrugs and points outside. “There’s the sea too, if you need water for magic stuff.”

Seeing how the water ran over Minyua’s skin and slowly got absorbed, he can guess it was a water fairy thing and not an attempt at removing the blood in his hair. That, or Stray didn’t heal his head correctly and he lost it.

“No, that’s enough for now. What happened?” Minyua repeats, clearly annoyed.

Hoshi would tease him, make him even more pissed off, but he’s not fully healed yet. God, it’d be a miracle to have an entire conversation with the fairy without any of them getting mad, but he has to try.

“I was passing by when the building collapsed–or exploded, as you said–and I. I… I don’t know. Your heart was beating really fast, I knew you were scared, and when I got there I… I don’t know, I just think it’s a horrible death and you didn’t deserve it. That asshole you killed was getting on my nerves anyway, I was planning to kill him and you did it for me. I guess you can see it as a thank you.”

Minyua swallows and looks away. His ears are red.

“I talked to my soulmate before you got there, I gave them the address and a number. Did you see anyone?”

Oh. Crap, he completely forgot about that. He never called, but he’s pretty sure he can talk to Seungcheol and make him pretend he did if Minyua checks with him. He’d also like to ask how they know each other, but Seungcheol knows lots of people and he keeps all of their secrets, even from their little group.

“No, but it only took me a few minutes to get there and leave. They probably didn’t have time to join us, call the police or whatever. I’m sure they’re fine.”

He definitely isn’t. Lying about himself is awkward, pretending he’s not his soulmate doesn’t feel right, but he’s so confused, so lost, he really doesn’t want to deal with Minyua knowing they’re soulmates. He won’t change, won’t stop stealing from assholes and avenging his kind–their kind, he’d like to remember Minyua when he tries to stop him–even if his little spoon asked him. No, it’s better to keep it that way. If only one of them knows, none of them can get rejected or disappointed.

“Then I brought you here, and Stray–you know, the witch–healed you. He’s good at, like, potions and stuff. So, he made one and healed you. I think he knows healing spells too, but you’re a water fairy you know, so he probably thought it’d be better to give you something liquid, like water. There was water in the potion. Well, water from the sink, but that’s still water.”

“You’re rambling.”

“Yeah, I really should stop talking.”

“You should.”

He waits for about ten minutes, even though none of them really knows what to say or do, before suggesting Minyua should go. The fairy blinks, like he didn’t even think about it before the other mentioned it, and gets up.

“We helped you, so it’d be nice if you could forget where we are.”

“What?”

Hoshi rolls his eyes. “The place. Pretend you don’t know it’s ours. Like, never come here again. Don’t come here to start a fight, that kind of stuff. We saved your life, come on.”

“Why would I go to you for a fight when you already come to me every night for that?”

Hoshi shrugs. “Look, I was just making sure you wouldn’t do that, don’t look at me like that. Bye.”

Minyua leaves. He still has the vampire’s jacket, but it’s not like the latter minds. It’s all bloody now anyway, water fairies can deal with bloody clothes better than vampires (and he’s going to pretend it’s not an excuse to let him keep his jacket because one, it’s nice to know his little spoon isn’t freezing, and two, he feels a bit warm himself from seeing his soulmate with something of his). Hoshi goes to Stray’s room, finding his friend comfortably sitting on his bed with a book in his hands and glasses on his nose.

“So, when is your existential crisis starting?” Stray asks him, turning a page.

He walks to the bed, lets himself fall next to his friend and hides his face in a pillow. “Now, I’d say.”

“You know he won’t be happy when he’ll find out you two are soulmates.”

“He won’t.”

“He will. And you will regret not telling him, because with the way it’s going, I’m pretty sure he won’t learn it from you.”

“Can’t you at least pretend to support me?” Hoshi groans, rolling over so he can face his friend.

“Nope,” he turns another page, eyes not leaving his book, “I’m your best friend, which means it’s my job to call you out when you decide to be stupid. If you hurt him, I won’t talk to you until you fix it.”

“What? I’m literally your best friend!”

This time, Stray is the one who rolls his eyes. “I’m not doing this for him, not only him. You’ll thank me later, when this mess will be over and I’ll be the reason why you’re holding your soulmate’s hand and being disgustingly in love. I’ll even be kind and not pretend to throw up when I’ll catch you cuddling in the living room.”

“Why do you care so much about him?”

Stray finally looks at him. He sighs and closes his book.

“It’s a long story, but I’ll tell you if you really want me to.”

Hoshi nods so fast he swears he felt something break in his neck.

“Okay, then.”

The witch opens his book and starts reading like nothing happened. Soonyoung whines, incredulous.

“Are you kidding me? You said you’d tell me?”

“Yeah, but I never said I’d tell you today.”

Soonyoung goes back to the pillow and screams, pretending he can't hear Stray’s amused chuckle.

**Author's Note:**

> if you leave kudos and/or a comment i'll love you forever ♡ (no but seriously comments make me write more so if you want an update soon pleaaaaase leave feedback, even if it's negative!)
> 
> twitter: @mekimingyu  
> curiouscat: @mekimingyu


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